The Two Tonys

The story of two Kansas City hoods who went to Los Angeles to throw their weight around. This story, peopled with such characters as Mickey Cohen and Jimmy "The Weasel" Frattiano, is a page that could have been torn from "L.A. Confidential."

"You know, Jimmy," said Jack Dragna, then the head of the L.A. Mob, "these guys are no good. We’ve gotten a lot of bad reports on them. The way I see it, we’ve got to clip them. Set something up, will you."

Jimmy was "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno. The two punks Dragna wanted taken out were two unruly shakedown artists who were muscle for hire: Anthony Brancato and Anthony Joseph Trombino.

The two Tonys began their criminal careers in Kansas City. In the late 1940s, Norfia Brancato worked for mobster Mickey Cohen in Los Angeles. Cohen described Norfia as a "real gentleman" who was loyal and had a great respect for people. Norfia approached Cohen and received permission to bring his younger brother Tony in from Kansas City. Tony Brancato arrived on the coast and became part of Cohen’s crew. Shortly his friend Tony Trombino joined him in Los Angeles. Brancato soon wore out his welcome, as he was not content with just being on Cohen’s payroll. According to Cohen, Brancato and Trombino began to "muscle people and bulldoze people – things that was uncalled for in this part of the country."

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More